This invention relates to billiard cues and more particularly to a billiard cue provided with a quick connector for the handle portion thereof.
In many homes having pool tables there is not enough space around the table to always permit the player to make a play with a standard length billiard cue. At such times it would be highly desirable to be able to quickly shorten the length of the billiard cue to make the play by disconnecting the handle portion of the billiard cue from the shaft portion thereof. Then, after the play has been made, to just as quickly rejoin the handle portion back onto the shaft portion so that play may be resumed with a standard length billiard cue. However, threaded connectors of the type conventionally employed to join portions of billiard cues to each other are not practical for such purposes since they require several turns of the portions relative to each other to form the joint and therefore take up too much time to disconnect and then reconnect the handle portion during a play. Accordingly, it is seen that there is a need for a low cost simple connector which can be used to quickly join the handle portion of a billiard cue to the shaft portion thereof.
In summary, the connector of the present invention comprises fittings carried on the ends of the shaft and handle portions of a billiard cue. The fittings carried on the end of the handle portion includes an eccentric shoulder provided with a smaller diameter concentric elongated stud on the outer end thereof. The fitting carried on the end of the shaft portion includes an elongated concentric bore having a diameter corresponding to that of the stud and an eccentric counterbore on the outer end thereof having a diameter corresponding to that of the eccentric shoulder. The fittings are adapted to be readily axially mated together with the concentric stud freely received in the concentric bore and with the eccentric shoulder freely received in the eccentric counterbore. Then, by axially twisting the handle portion a fraction of a turn relative to the shaft portion, the eccentric shoulder of the handle portion fitting is caused to be cammed against the eccentric counterbore of the shaft portion fitting to thereby radially displace the handle portion fitting such that its concentric stud frictionally bears with a clamping force against the wall of the concentric bore in the shaft portion fitting. By axially twisting the handle portion relative to the shaft portion a fraction of a turn in the opposite direction the clamping force between the fittings is released such that the handle portion can be axially disconnected from the shaft portion.
Accordingly, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a connector for the handle portion of a billiard cue which enables a player to quickly remove the handle portion and thereby shorten the billiard cue when there is not enough space around a pool table to make a play with a standard length billiard cue.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a connector for axially joining the handle portion of a billiard cue to the shaft portion thereof when the handle portion is twisted a fraction of a turn in either direction relative to the shaft portion.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a quick connector for joining the handle portion of a billiard cue to the shaft portion thereof which is economical to manufacture.
With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in the appended claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.